Happy heart day

Happy heart day
We love you too!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Dear Family, July 17, 2011

Wow so many things have happened since the last time I e mailed you!! I e mailed Ryan a long letter first and then we know have to e mail our mission president so I don’t have a lot of time today. But thanks for all the e mails. I really loved reading them.

So guess what?! I got transferred!! So on Tuesday afternoon after District Meeting I received a call from our new mission President Lekias! He said that the Lord was calling me to be a new Zone Leader!! WOW!! yeah so now I am a new Zone Leader. I have been called to serve as a zone leader in the Harbour/Henderson Zone of the Mission. That is in West Auckland!! So yup I’m finally serving in the Huge City of Auckland! There are two Districts in the Zone and we cover a big area of Auckland. It is north and west of the Downtown Auckland. I can see the sky line though so we are pretty close to the city. There are a lot of missionaries in the Zone. My companion is named Elder Chandler! He is just an incredible missionary and is so full of faith! He is from Idaho! He has been a zone Leader for a while now and he has been in the zone for a long time so he knows it really well. The missionaries are all so great! I will have to tell you more about each one of them when I have more time. Well Elder Naicker also got transferred to South Auckland so we both got double shifted out of the area. The new mission president is making a lot of new changes with the missionaries in the areas. The Roger family was quite shocked!! I am going to miss that family so much. I’m going to miss the ward and Whangarei a lot. Thursday we drove down to Auckland for Transfers! Wow being a zone leader is so cool! It is a lot different than from being a District Leader. But it is also more stressful and you have more responsibility. You report to the Assistants to the President a lot more. We also talk to President a lot more. I have come to know President Lekias a lot already and he is such a wonderful mission President. We cover the Massey ward. It is a huge ward compared to my last ward. Wow it’s so different serving in the city than in the country. There are good things about both. There are so many islanders around where I’m serving, a lot of Samoans and Tongans in our ward. I have met some Niueans also and have been able to speak the language to them. It has been so cool! I love the island people and I’m so grateful I will be able to serve around them again! We have already had a baptism since I’ve been here! Last Saturday we had a baptism of one of their investigators. Her name is Maria. She is from Samoa! It was such a wonderful baptism! We have two more baptism dates set for this month. It is incredible!

Well I’m so sorry but I have to go. I will have to tell you about so many things next time. I love you all so much!!
Love Elder Kitchen

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Kia Ora Whanau!! Faka Lofa Lahi Atu!

Kia Ora Whanau!! Faka Lofa Lahi Atu! July 10, 2011

I hope this message gets to my wonderful family all safe, happy, and doing well. As the weeks go by....I am just amazed about how fast the time flies by. Everything in the beautiful country of New Zealand is just doing great for me. Me and my companion are both safe and doing great! Transfers are this Thursday so we are really sad that one of us might be getting transferred. I'll let you know if I am emailing you from somewhere else next Monday. The weather here is just rain and rain. It seriously rains EVERY single day....and I’m not kidding! It is all sunny and okay...(still pretty cold) and then the rain hits and it pours down really hard. We just wear our rain jackets all day just in case in the middle of nowhere it starts pouring down on us :) I’m just so grateful to be here in this beautiful place!

Well you wanted to know a little about my new mission President. His name is President Lekias. He, his wife, and their 3 daughters are here in New Zealand. They have a son on a mission right now in Wellington New Zealand. We met them and they are just wonderful people. They are way nice and energetic. They are young...like in their 40's and are really excited to be here. They have such strong testimonies. We didn’t get to meet with them that long...but from what I can see they are going to be just wonderful mission president. It is a little weird not seeing President and Sister Porter anymore....but I know that President Lekias is called of God to be our new mission President.

Well last Monday me and Elder Naicker went to this Fijian Indian restaurant for lunch. It is exactly his food and so he really wanted to go there! Oh I don’t know if I have told you already but I love the Indian Food here...like people from India and Fiji. It’s a lot of good things like curry and butter chicken and so many good things like that. We don’t have really any Indian food where we live. I hope I can find a restaurant when I get back and we’ll all go there. On Tuesday we have such an incredible lesson with Stephanie and the Roger family! I don’t know if I have talked about them a lot but I absolutely LOVE that family. They are incredible in every way and we are over there all the time. The reason why is because we have a lot of lessons with their family. They are a family that I have helped bring into the gospel and they are making their way to be a forever family. When we first went there the whole family wasn’t really interested except Caleb. He is 15 years old. The dad was a less active and the whole family was non members. Well obliviously you know we have helped Caleb get baptized. Then we started working with Destiney his younger sister that is 10 years old. She got baptized and know guess what Stephanie (the mom) is SET with a baptism date!! She is getting baptized on the 30th of this month. (July) The whole family except Azalia (13 year old girl) has been coming to church every week for the past 3 weeks. Then just yesterday Azalia came! So the whole family came! They were all dressed up and it just made me get emotional and full of joy to see their whole family sitting in Sacrament meeting! :) I’m so happy for them! Jared (the dad) wants to come back to full activity and receive the priesthood. Stephanie is getting baptized. We are helping Azalia want to get baptized. And we are just doing our best to help the whole family. Caleb is doing so good and wants to serve a mission! He is going to go to baptisms for the dead in the temple soon! The other night we had a very spiritual lesson on forever families and the temple and them being sealed. The whole family felt the spirit so strong. I know they will go to the temple! Hopefully in a year’s time (one year after everyone gets baptized) I really want to come to New Zealand and be there when they get sealed together! I would love that so much. Mom and gave Stephanie the Book of Mormon you gave me that has your testimony in it. She loved it so much!

Every time we go over there they have a cup of Milo (kind of like hot chocolate) ready for us. They feed us sometimes....awe I just love them. So many good and wonderful memories with them. I will never forget that family. Well Rata and Miriana are still doing good and they are set for the 30th of July for Baptism also!! I’m excited that family is awesome too. Their mom Teresa wants to be baptized too!! Miracles are happening all around! The work is just doing wonderful and we are working so hard. Tony isn’t set for baptism because he is going to get baptized down in Auckland. Oh yeah Elder Naicker is okay...he just had a crash....we were laughing so hard. He is lucky he didn’t get hurt though.

Wow so many people are getting married back home. Life just keeps getting more crazy and is just amazing. I really do miss you so much. My heart is so full of gratitude for all the many blessings I have in my life. I love you more than you know. Thank you for everything you guys do for me. I wish I didn’t have to go now but I do....okay so next week I have to e mail so other people before I e mail this letter. Ryan!! Krissy (she sent one this week) and Ashley!! Time is just so valuable. That is one thing I have really learned on my mission.

Have a great and happy week.
With much love your brother, and son.
Elder Tyler Kitchen

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Dear Family! July 3, 2011

How are you all doing today?! Well I hope all is well with everyone. I’m excited to hear that mom and the girls are just having a great time in Arizona. This e mail is going to be pretty short.....we have had a pretty crazy day today and some things didn’t work the way we wanted so I’m sorry about that. And Ryan I hate to do this to ya.....but I will probably have to e mail you an e mail next week. I’ll see what happens but I want to e mail a good one and don’t want to be all rushed and stuff.

Thanks for sending me those letters. I also received a letter from Grandpa Kitchen. Awe he is so funny. I miss him a lot. He was telling me about my Gun. I can’t wait to go hunting with him sometime when I get back. I’m glad everyone is having a wonderful time for the 4th of July. It doesn’t seem any different here.....they don’t even say one thing about it haha. I’m sure they are a lot of fireworks going off in the States though! I’m glad to hear that everyone was able to hang out with the cousins and everything! :)

I haven’t been able to meet our new mission President yet....but I will tomorrow. I’m excited...I’ve heard some good things about him. Even though I’m still really sad President Porter had to leave. I’m sure he is excited to be home with his family that he hasn’t seen in 3 years!! He worked so hard and he did some incredible things. Well I’m still here in Whangarei but transfers are coming up soon....so I will see what happens.

This week has been great! We have been teaching and talking to a lot of people. I have been able to go on a lot of tradeoffs with the missionaries. We have had some really great success and miracles. Carol (Hone's mom) got married in the church last Saturday. She married Tony. He is our investigator and we hope to set him with a baptism date as soon as possible. We are trying to set more investigators with baptism dates so if you could pray for that I’d more than love it. Elder Naicker had a pretty big crash on his bike this week. Luckily he is okay and nothing serious at all happened. I finally made that birthday cake you sent me. I’ve just been busy. I made it last night. It was so yummy so thanks very much. A member made us a really good dinner a while ago. It was this amazing Roast! Soooo Good! Well the Roger family is going great. Stephanie Rogers (the mom) came to church again and so did Brother Rogers. Sister Rogers has committed to try and keep the word of wisdom. She has a lot of things to give up but i know she can do it. So please keep her in your prayers too....she is trying to change her life around. Our week was just great and we just hope that we can continue to spread the gospel to Heavenly Fathers children!

Well I’m got to go now. I love you all so very much! :)
Love your missionary, Elder Tyler Kitchen

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Dear Family, June 26, 2011

My heart is full of overwhelming joy and happiness. These moments in life make life worth living and allow us to feel a little bit of what Heaven will feel like someday. I don’t know how to describe to you what I’m feeling. I know this powerful feeling of love comes only from one place....from God the Eternal Father. I know that this love was shown in one of the most extreme expressions of love when the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ performed the Atonement. I am forever grateful for the Atonement. I hope and pray that each of you will allow the Atonement to enter into your own lives. Let it purify, clean, and allow you to have the Holy Ghost into your heart. I know that God lives, that is Son Jesus Christ is my savior...I not only hope those things....I absolutely know them for a fact. I know that the Holy Ghost has made them manifest to me. I know that the Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is a sacred and holy record given to us in these last days to understand the teachings of the Savior. I have a solid Testimony of that book. I love reading its pages and learning from the holy prophets of old and the experiences they had with God. I can feel the power in the Book of Mormon confirm to me that the only true and living church on the face of the whole earth is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation which makes it possible for families to be together forever. I would love to say a lot more but because of time I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I just thought I’d share my testimony with you. I have a strong testimony and I wish I could write more of it. I just love all of you so very much. Thanks for everything you do for me! I am so glad to hear that everyone is back safely and that all of you had such wonderful and amazing experiences. Thanks for sharing them with me. I also have had so many incredible things happen this week.

Last P day we played sports for hours. It was so much fun to run around and play some sports. We played basketball, football, and some rugby. Wow I haven’t really said much about rugby...it’s so fun. I’m not that great at it....it gets confusing compared to football. But it’s a lot of fun. I’ve played it in Niue a lot and now a couple of times in New Zealand. Tuesday we had a wonderful District Meeting. The spirit was so strong and I could feel the power just lift all the missionaries. It’s such a blessing to work with such great missionaries. They are all some of my best friends and I love them all. That’s one of the hardest things about a mission...is saying goodbye to the people you love. Well we just went crazy talking to people of Tuesday. We talked to 50 people and it was great just to be urgent on sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. It rained and rained this week and we got really wet. The grass here is just so muddy. I was able to do some really good baptism interviews this week. Thursday was amazing. We went on a trade off with the zone leaders. Elder Naicker and Elder Haight stayed in our area and I went to the Zone Leaders area with Elder Aldridge. It was awesome. We worked so hard and had some miracles. Wow I learned a lot from him. He is a great missionary. We got to go to Hikurangi which is a beautiful place. We met one of the returned missionaries in their ward over by the shops. He just got back about a month ago. He bought us heaps of food and stuff. Later that day we went to Punuruku. It is a beautiful place on the coast of New Zealand. Wow its breath taking there....amazing views of the ocean. We did some really wonderful work there and one of the YSA preparing to serve a mission came with us. We had some great lessons. I interviewed one of the ZLs investigators for baptism. Then we drove out in the country more to go to one of our teaching appts. It was at this farm house in the country side of the coast. It was a kiwi family and they had a lot of kids at their house. They had a lot of young adults there from around the world working at this high adventure camp they run. There were a lot of people from Europe. It was so cool to meet all of them. Then the mom and the dad rounded up as many of their kids and their friends who wanted to listen to the missionaries. It ended up being 12 non-members above the age of 15 listening to our message!! That is the most people (investigators) I’ve taught all at one time. They are all Catholics. We taught a powerful Restoration Lesson. The spirit was very powerful and I could literally feel the Holy Ghost helping me know exactly what to say. They had a lot of questions but we were able to answer all of them. At the end of the lesson we gave them some Book of Mormon’s and committed them all to read and pray to know if the book was true. It was such a great experience I’ll never forget. After the lesson was over it was too late to drive all the way back to Whangarei so we stayed the night at a members home in Punuruku. (of course with permission from President Porter). They live right on the beach and its just incredible there. There is no road to get to where they live....so you just drive right on the beach. I took some really good photos. It was so fun and an experience

I’ll never forget. I just loved it.

Well guess what....we had an incredible miracle from the hand of the Lord happen to us this week. So, on Friday night we had a dinner with Hones aunty...Sister Kake. Well it was a miracle but guess what Hone came back to Whangarei!!! YAY! He decided he wanted to come back and continue to be taught by us. He told us he had an experience that just made me so happy. He said his grandma took him to buy a new coat. He saw two coats....one was a worldly (gangster sweater) or he saw a suit coat (church one). He said he prayed to know which one to get and he decided to get the suit coat....!!! This is a 14 year old kid (mind me he looks 18) Wow we were so happy. Well we invited him to come to the baptism of Destiney we would be having the next day. Well yup Destiney Rogers was baptized on Saturday!! YAY!! It was an incredible baptism, wow the spirit of the Lord was so strong. Her whole family came. The music was amazing. Everything went so good....Elder Naicker baptized her. Well after the baptism Hone said he felt the spirit and that he wanted to be baptized!! WOW!! So we took him into the room went over the things we've taught him. Asked him questions, prayed, and then we got confirmation from our leaders to baptize him the next day!!! The zone leaders came down to do his interview! He passed! So Yesterday an hour before church Hone was baptized. Then he and Destiney were confirmed and then Hone received the Aaronic priesthood in the 3rd hour! What a miracle from Heavenly Father. Hones baptism was great. Elder Naicker was blessed to do it. Wow I felt the spirit way strong...the Lord answered my prayers. Everything about that experience was an absolute miracle.

I am so glad to hear Ryan loved Heritage Tours. Wow I loved his letter so much. It brought back so many wonderful memories for me. I wish I could talk to him over the phone....or better in person. Haha....well I will have to e mail a letter to him next week because I have to go soon. I’m happy to hear Mandy Got married again! :) tell her congrats and that I love her very much. I’m so happy for them. I can’t wait to go to their sealing. Awwww I love this gospel so much. Mom I loved the experience you wrote about going to the mission zone conference. It touched my heart and I’m so glad you were able to have that experience....you know a little bit about the mission experience. That’s so cool you were able to meet that missionary....I think I remember him. Wow I’ll have to go meet him when I get back. Thanks for sharing that experience. Well I love you mom and have a great time down in Arizona! Tell everyone hello and that I love them all so much. I couldn’t ask for a better extended family!

Have a great week everyone. Love ya heaps and heaps!!

Love Elder Kitchen

Elder Kitchens companions

Tehuacan (5/14/2014) to (8/6/2014) Elder Conrad from Draper, Utah

Nealtican (4/2/2014) to (5/14/2014) Elder Christensen from Denver, Colorado

Nealtican (2/19/2014) to (4/2/2014) Elder Sanchez from Chiapas, Mexico

Puebla (1/8/2014) to (2/19/2014) Elder Dzul from Cancun, Mexico

Puebla (10/15/2013) to (1/8/2014) Elder Betts from Mexi-Cali Baja California, Mexico

Atlixco (7/23/2013) to (10/14/2013) Elder Ortega from Nayarit, Mexico

Puebla (3/19/2013) to (7/22/2013) Elder Burden from Snowflake, Arizona

Puebla (2/19/2013) to (3/18/2013) Elder Knowlton from Springville, Utah

Atexcac (1/8/2013) to (2/18/2013) Elder Olvera from San. Luis Potosi, Mexico

Atexcac (10/16/2012) to (1/7/2013) Elder Tinoco from Dorango, Mexico

MTC (8/15/2012) to (10/15/2012) Elder Astle from Northern California




























































































































































































Followers